Hurricane Milton

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west point

Engineer
Joined
Jun 9, 2015
Messages
5,136
Location
SW ATL airport
People are fleeing and with good reason. Hope there is going to be enough gasoline for everyone to flee. One worry may be the lack of gasoline after Milton. Much gasoline is barged into Tampa and if that facility is severely damaged then -----------

Wonder what will happen to much of CSX tracks. Also, Brightline and FEC? Then Seminole Gulf which just got full operations?
 
The traffic jams on I-4 eastbound, I-95 northbound, I-75 both north bound and east bound from Naples. I have some doubt of persons going toward FLL / MIA in case Milton tries to go more directly eastbound.
 
Most evacuation is over short distances to safe structures thankfully. Otherwise the traffic would have been completely unmanageable. You want to be close by to return quickly. Afterall the curfews to keep looters away won’t last forever 🤷🏻
 
Brightline has cancelled service North of West Palm Beach on Wednesday and Thursday.
That's really interesting that they're still running service south of WPB. I wonder how the staff feel about that. Is the storm not expected to deal much damage, such as surge, to southeastern FL?
 
That's really interesting that they're still running service south of WPB. I wonder how the staff feel about that. Is the storm not expected to deal much damage, such as surge, to southeastern FL?
No. It is not.
 
Tri Rail is suspended Wednesday and Thursday.

South Florida is not in the direct path of Milton, but Tornados have been breaking out in that area.

Ken
I'm in West Palm Beach. There were around 30 tornado warnings in a 2-3 county area with at least 8-10 on the ground. Plenty of damage. In Palm Beach County it is said 8-10 homes were hit directly. My daughter took a video of a tornado passing close to her home. We have never seen anything like that with tornadoes during any previous hurricanes. A few yes but this was very different scenario.
 
I'm in West Palm Beach. There were around 30 tornado warnings in a 2-3 county area with at least 8-10 on the ground. Plenty of damage. In Palm Beach County it is said 8-10 homes were hit directly. My daughter took a video of a tornado passing close to her home. We have never seen anything like that with tornadoes during any previous hurricanes. A few yes but this was very different scenario.
Total 119 tornado warnings with 19 confirmed tornados including at least three wedge tornados in Florida today.
 
Total 119 tornado warnings with 19 confirmed tornados including at least three wedge tornados in Florida today.
Chief meteorologist Tom Terry says it was the 2nd highest number of tornadoes in a single day in U.S. history. They were larger and lasted longer than typical tropical storm associated tornadoes because they were in individual supercells generated by the storm's dynamics, rather than embedded in a rain band. In fact the outbreak abated when it was overtaken by an actual rain band.

Here in Ocoee, 8 miles west of downtown Orlando, it sounds like we're getting some of the biggest gusts now, on the backside of the storm, after an hour or two of relative calm. Rainfall has also picked up again.
 
The latest from Amtrak.

Due to Hurricane Milton's impending arrival, select trains will operate a modified schedule for Amtrak customers' and employees' safety. Despite our efforts, alternate transportation will not be available.



Thursday, Oct. 10th
Silver Service

  • Train 91 is canceled.
  • Train 92 is canceled.
  • Train 97 is canceled.
  • Train 98 is canceled.
Auto Train Service
  • Train 52 is canceled.
  • Train 53 is canceled.

Friday, Oct. 11th
Silver Service
  • Train 92 will originate from Jacksonville (JAX).
  • Train 98 will originate from Jacksonville (JAX).
Auto Train Service
  • Train 52 is canceled.
  • Train 53 is canceled.
 
WOW, hopefully there's only Property Damage due to them, not to People and Pets!
There have been tornado related fatalities.

The fatalities were all down south. The largest number were in St. Lucie County AFAICT.

There was a time when there were as many as 15 Tornado Warnings active at the same time. Most of them appeared to fizzle away as they got upto Indian River County. About 5 made it into the south and west extremities of Brevard County from the south. Brevard got a few come in from the Ocean and cause some damage, the biggest being in Cocoa Beach where there was a brief tornado touchdown. There was a string of them that went upto Orlando, causing some significant damage in Yeehaw Jct., Keenansville, Deer Park and Holopaw vicinity mostly in thinly populated areas. Fortunately the large new development in Harmony on US192 between St. Cloud and Holopaw was not hit.

One thing that TV stations do here is provide street level guidance on where the tornados and related spinning systems are. In order to do so effectively during the height of the event they had to bring in additional staff to adequately cover everything that was going on.

The center of the eye went by about 20 miles north of my place sometime between 4 and 6am. The system was north loaded, so even though we were on the right quadrants, the usually dirty side, most of the action was on the left hand side this time due to how the wind shear from the cold front which arrived from the north interacted with the hurricane. It exited Florida over Merritt Island as a 90mph or so system,

Personally, I stayed up until a little past midnight and then set up my iPhone for loudest volume for any events reported regarding the storm and went to sleep. This morning I looked at the power system logs and discovered that I had lost power briefly (around 8 mins) while I was awake but hadn't noticed as the backup system transitioned to and back from the batteries smoothly. I was watching TV (Uverse) and the entire signal delivery chain stayed alive without a glitch through the power outage. Woke up a little after the center of the eye passed us about 25 miles to the north as a decent Cat 1 storm (85-90mph) Now at 10am things are absolutely still outside, with an occasional breeze. So I think it is all over. Now to pull down the shutters.
 
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There has been some concern of people leaving EV's behind in their garage since the batteries and saltwater are not compatible
I'll let you in on a "secret"; there are batteries and wiring in ICE vehicles that are not compatible with saltwater either.
The secondary car market after a hurricane can be very sketchy. Cars "totaled" in FL end up for sale in northern states.
 
I'll let you in on a "secret"; there are batteries and wiring in ICE vehicles that are not compatible with saltwater either.
The secondary car market after a hurricane can be very sketchy. Cars "totaled" in FL end up for sale in northern states.
The difference is that there is very little energy stored in the battery used in pure ICE cars. Even if they short they don't have enough energy to cause much damage. EV batteries have enormous amount of energy comparatively, and when shorted can cause a significant conflagration which is hard to put out with water. There have been cases during Helene where an otherwise unaffected house except for flooding had a EV in the garage go up in flames causing the house to burn down. So there is some anecdotal evidence that this is a significant issue. EM folks have strongly advised moving EVs away from areas that are likely to flood and definitely away from the house.
 
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Even large lead acid batteries that do store very large amounts of energy will not exhibit the thermal runaway that most (but not all) lithium ion chemistries are prone to. Large lead acid battery strings pose a different issue with salt water, electrolysis releasing chlorine gas, not an issue with a one or two batteries like a car or truck, but potentially lethal in a submarine or large battery room.
 
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Even large lead acid batteries that do store very large amounts of energy will not exhibit the thermal runaway that most (but not all) lithium iron chemistries are prone to. Large lead acid battery strings pose a different issue with salt water, electrolysis releasing chlorine gas, not an issue with a one or two batteries like a car or truck, but potentially lethal in a submarine or large battery room.
You mean Lithium "Ion" not Lithium "Iron" surely?

The only chemistry involving Lithium and Iron, namely LiFePO4 is the safest of all Lithium chemistries as far a thermal runaway is concerned.
 
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You mean Lithium "Ion" mot Lithium "Iron" surely?

The only chemistry involving Lithium and Iron, namely LiFePO4 is the safest of all Lithium chemistries as far a thermal runaway is concerned.
yes, I guess I didn't see autocorrect zing me, or maybe a Freudian slip, as LiFeP04 would indeed be the lithium battery considered safest. Sadly, somewhat lower energy density, but depending on the application that doesn't always matter too much. I will go back and remove the spurious "r"
 
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The secondary car market after a hurricane can be very sketchy. Cars "totaled" in FL end up for sale in northern states.
That happened after Katrina, as reported in the (sadly RIP) Times-Picayune.

Also, in a more localized and far less serious flooding event, about twenty years ago in Seattle we got an exceptionally deep snowfall of wet snow, that landed on and sank corrugated metal roofing at a marina, sinking many expensive boats. Apparently yacht buyers elsewhere bought the 'bargain' boats.
 
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